


Shadows on a Prairie

by Pasikoo



Category: Babylon 5, Little House on the Prairie (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-04
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-04-02 22:33:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4076242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pasikoo/pseuds/Pasikoo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two stories and two endings, neither of which is a happy one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shadows on a Prairie

The bright blue sky was filled with majestetic white clouds. They looked beautiful. Too beautiful, Laura thought. That kind of beauty felt wrong, when she was dying inside. It was hard for her to believe it was all gone. All of it.

Laura looked at the hillside covered in long hay. Some distance away she saw a little house, not more than a shack, standing bravely on the prairie. An iconic sight, almost. A sight, she had once thought, would be as eternal as the land beneath her. It too, would soon disappear, abandoned.

She knew the carriage waited for her, all packed, with Almanzo and Jenny on it. But she had wanted to see her old home. To see it for what she knew would be the last time. 

She had her long dress on, and her attire, complete with tight corset underneath and sun bonnet laced tightly, wasn't made for walking in the long grass. So she merely stood there, and fought back tears. 

Laura had showed a brave face to Jenny, and to rest of the townspeople. But now the emotions, the simple magnitude of what they had been forced to do, caught up on her. And the consequences of their actions.

It had been her idea. She was responsible. But it had to be done. They had to destroy the town. Still, it was hard for her to grasp all she had grew up in was gone. To understand she wouldn't be able to come back here, ever again. Because there wouldn't be nothing to come back to. Not anymore.

All her life this place had remained a part of her. It had been the ground rock beneath her feet. She was a grown woman now, with a daughter of her own, and she hadn't lived here in years. But all she was, all she knew, all she had learned during her childhood, things that made her what she was, she had gotten from here.

She looked at the scene before her and wanted to be able to remember every little detail as long as she lived. The little house. The tree she remembered climbing in. The creek she had chased frogs in. A hillside she remembered running down from so many times. A part of her wanted to do that one more time, even though she knew it was impossible. 

She heard someone approaching her from behind. For a few moments there was silence. 

"Laura...", Almanzo said. "We have to leave."

"I know". Laura said. "I just wanted to..."

She had to stop to avoid her voice from breaking. She let out a couple of muffled sobs, then stopped. Not now, she thought. She would cry later, but not now.

Laura felt Almanzo putting hand on her shoulder. She knew her husband would have wanted to console her, but was unable to find the right words. But simply him being there, knowing he cared, was enough. Had always been. 

Suddenly she felt a wave of dizziness washing over her. Her vision blurred and she felt the ground beneath her tremble. She felt as if she was about to faint. The world swayed, back and forth.

"Are you okay?" she heard Almanzo say. The words sounded as if they were coming from miles away, faint and twisted. She tried to answer, but no words came out. The world kept swaying, and she had to close her eyes.

Then she opened them again.

It was dark. She was sitting down, strapped to her seat. Then she felt another tremble. The previous one, she realized now, had woken her up. 

There was still a hand on her shoulder, but it was a man sitting in front of her in the passenger compartment, looking at her. 

"Hey, Anna?" the man said, concern in his dark eyes. "I said are you okay?"

She looked around her. The lights at the shuttles passenger compartment were dimmed and she saw the other members of the archaeological survey in their seats. Some reading, some dozing as she had been. Anna felt the shuttle sway.

"Looks like you really fell into sleep", her friend said, withdrawing his hand. She nodded and put hands on her temples. 

"Had a dream?" her friend said after a while. Anna nodded. Why it was so hard to concentrate?

"Yes...", she said finally. "I did."

"Seems it was quite a dream", her friend said.

"It was", Anna said. "I don't know. It was... so real. So vivid."

Anna tried to grasp the fleeting images. Familiar faces, places... There was so many of them, but she was unable to get hold of any. It all escaped from her, like a water in a stream. 

Anna looked up. Her friend smiled, that broad, wide smile he always used when wanting to reassure someone, or to make them feel better. She smiled back.

"I'm okay."

Suddenly the compartment's small door opened with a hiss and they saw Dr. Chang appearing to the door frame.

"You better buckle up, people", Chang said. "The rest of the way will be even more bumpy than what we're experienced so far. We're going to enter the planet's atmosphere in a few minutes. The sensors read a lot of turbulence ahead."

The compartment was suddenly filled with sounds of hustle as people started to fasten their seatbelts and to put away whatever they had been focused on. 

Again, there was a tremble and Chang had to take a tighter hold on the handle by the door.

"Okay, listen up" Chang said. "After we land I want to get a team out as soon as possible." 

He looked at Anna and rest of the researchers in the seats by the door.

"Sheridan, Williams, Morden, Hyvonen and... Larson, you too", he counted. "I want you to suit up first."

Anna nodded with the rest of the researchers. Almost involuntarily she wrapped her fingers around the locket on around her neck. It contained her wedding photo, with her and John on it.

Something was wrong, Anna knew. It was illogical, irrational fear, something a scientist like her should be above of. But still, it felt as if there had been a dark fist around her heart.

She had been thrilled, ecstatic even, to be accepted on the IPX expedition. However, during their voyage, as the Icarus got closer and closer the Rim she had begun to feel that something sinister was waiting for them at Alpha Omega III. Sinister and dark.

Dr. Chang, however, seemed to be excited as ever. The grey-haired man had almost a boyish look on his face. 

"Let's hope the preliminary reports were accurate", Dr. Chang said smiling. "This expedition may make or break our careers."

Anna let go of the locket and forced a smile on her face. "Who knows."

Outside, the breaking thrusters fired and the shuttle began its descend towards the planet's atmosphere. The pitch black cloud formations swirled furiously as the shuttle dove in. 

Outside the shuttle there was only darkness. And shadows.


End file.
